1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for facilitating the compilation of data relating to the extent and cost of repairing a vehicle body which has been damaged in a collision or similar type of accident, and more specifically to a method and arrangement which takes into account the amount of work involved in the rectification, repair and repainting of the existing panels, which does not just consider replacement of the same, and which is extremely portable enabling its use in a pocket type hand-held computer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the event of a collision or the like which results in damage to panels and/or structural members of a vehicle body, it is very often required that an estimate for the repairs of the same be produced on the spot (viz., on the scene of the accident and/or within a short period of time of the vehicle being being towed or otherwise moved to a garage or body shop for repair.
In order to generate such an estimate, it is usual for a worker skilled in the art to move about the vehicle making notes and reference to a chart of the nature shown in FIG. 1 of the drawings.
However, as will be appreciated from this figure, the schedule is, in order to be effective, quite complex and is arranged in terms of required work time (man hours) and damage panel surface area. The extent of the damage and the effect on the length of time required to rectify and/or repair the panels is charted in 8 levels of difficulty. The re-painting work and type and amount of paint (metallic, solid etc.) are also charted in the illustrated manner.
In order to utilize this type of chart it is firstly necessary to inspect each of the damaged sections and approximate the deformed area thereof and the degree of difficult in repairing the same. Using these two values, the vertical lines of the chart are followed upwardly from the bottom of the chart from the approximate value until the appropriate difficulty degree is reached. By reading across to the left of the chart, an approximate time required for the panel beating and repair work can be obtained.
Following this, the amount of time required to repaint the section is calculated by determining the type of paint work involved (e.g. metallic or solid), and finding the intersection of the appropriate traces with the line of difficult selected previously. By reading across to the left of the chart, this value can be ascertained.
The two time periods are then summed and multiplied by the current labor rate to derive the repair cost data. Following this, the cost of the paint is determined by using the traces provided in the upper section of the schedule and reading across the right of the same.
The two costs are then summed to derive the cost estimate for the given damaged section.
The procedure is then repeated for each of the remaining damaged sections in the event that a plurality of separate deformations exist.
However, due to the complexity of the chart it has been found impracticable for the same be printed on anything less than an A4 size sheet. As carrying such a piece of paper, even when enclosed in a protective transparent cover, is both difficult and troublesome, especially when a lot of note taking and calculations are required, it usual to print the chart on a large sheet of paper and hang it on a wall in a suitable position. However, as garages and repairs shops are often subject to relative poor organization due to the very nature of their business and the urgency with which vehicles are often brought in and demands subsequently made for a quick repair estimate, the operator making the inspection and producing the estimate is often forced to turn, stretch or peer from a relatively long distance, to see the chart. This of course adds to the operator's fatigue and in some instances leads to erroneous calculations being performed.
In addition to this, the estimates produced by different operators tend to vary by an unacceptably large degree. This can be in part attributed to the relatively large number of assumptions and decisions which have to be mentally manipulated.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,435,769 issued on March 6, in the name of Nago et al, discloses a portable arrangement wherein lists of parts data are recorded on cassette tape. This arrangement however, has only taken simple replacement of parts into consideration and is both bulky and heavy (disclosed as being about 10 Kg). Further, a number of tapes are required in order to provide sufficient data to cover a number of different vehicle makes and types.
Accordingly, this device has not proven of any use when considering the repair and painting of existing panels and at 10 Kg has not proven to be sufficiently handy to enable the device to be hand held, as is clearly required in crowded and soiled environment of a body shop and/or at the actual site of an accident wherein a table or similar type of stand is inevitably not available.
A further attempt to improve the ease with which panel beating estimates can be derived has been proposed in an article published in the National Underwriter (Property/Casualty) Vol. 87 No. 43 page 46, on Oct. 28, 1983. This arrangement has proposed a chart which displays the various part of the vehicle in exploded form (about 4000 parts) and which can be selectively checked off as the operator "walks the car" (viz., moves methodically about the vehicle).
Following this, the chart is taken to a computer terminal and the data is typed in and subsequently transmitted to a remote central main frame type computer wherein appropriate calculations are made. The outcome of the computations are then relayed back to the operator's terminal.
Apart from requiring both a very expensive terminal and main frame system, this arrangement also requires the preparation of about 600 different charts in order to suitably cover a suitable spectrum of vehicle makes and types. In addition to this, only replacement is considered and data relating to actual repair of existing damaged panels is not calculated nor rendered any easier to derive.